VisiLure®

We blinded them with science!

The VisiLure® product line from RESCUE!® looks pretty, but there’s more to it than meets the eye.

The “more” is science. With the electro-retinogram (ERG) in our insect research lab, RESCUE!® scientists invented VisiLure® technology to create traps that lure bugs with visual cues.

Up until 2013, RESCUE!® only used scent attractants – either pheromones or feeding lures – to draw insects to our traps. To create these scent-based traps, our scientists employ an Electroantennagraphic detector (EAD) to measure insects' antennal responses to different smells. Now, using the ERG machine, we can create adhesive-based traps that lure bugs with sight, rather than scent.

The first RESCUE!® product to employ this VisiLure® technology – Fly Tape – was aimed at the eyes of common houseflies.

Using the ERG, RESCUE!® scientists measured photoreceptor responses in flies’ retinas to different wavelengths of visual stimuli to identify the most attractive colors and intensities. Further lab and field behavioral experiments indicated that the color patterns and contrasts mimicking the natural visual characteristics of flies were most appealing.

Flies have large compound eyes that don’t focus, so they see everything as a blurry image. The 3-D pattern and color simulate an image on which the flies can better focus.

The RESCUE!® Fly Tape is not your grandmother’s gooey brown fly ribbon. The first thing you notice is the attractive appearance, but the science makes it work like no other sticky fly trap.